ACT® English

Lucy's Age

ACTEN-XWJ4YE

Read the following passage, which contains some underlined or numbered words or phrases.Each of the answer choices contains alternatives for the underlines; choose the one that fits best grammatically or stylistically. If you think the original is the best answer, choose Choice ‘A’, or NO CHANGE.

Questions about specific parts of the passage or about the passage as a whole are identified by numbers only, not underlines. These will be associated with specific questions.

Lucy Li, Pro Golfer at Eleven

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Lucy Li, Pro Golfer at Eleven

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[1]

​(1)At 11 years of age, Lucy Li is the first person so young to qualify for the U. S. Women’s Amateur and U. S. Women’s

​Open golf tournament. Born in Stanford, California, Lucy began playing golf at the age of seven, while watching

​her older brother play the sport. Immediately, she began to show that she could achieve very low scores.

​Recognizing her early talent, her parents contacted Jim McLean, a renowned golf coach in Florida. Lucy moved in

​with her aunt over that summer, and began her professional training.

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[2]

​Since then, she’s broken a series of records, becoming the most young golfer to qualify for the U. S. Women’s

​Amateur Public Links, and the U. S. Women’s Amateur before the age of eleven. On May 19, 2014, she qualified for

​the U. S. Women’s Open, not only qualifying, but winning the event at Old Course at Half Moon Bay with an

​astonishing seven strokes. Li had a handicap of 1.5, well below the threshold of 2.4, making her eligible to compete

​in the qualifications for the tournament. Unfortunately, the sixth-grader did not become the youngest player to

​make the cut and participate in the Women’s Open. But, golf enthusiasts everywhere agree that her talent and

​her enthusiasm and joy for the sport make her a contender to keep an eye on.

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[3]

​Lucy endeared herself to the crowds and the participants with her ability to bounce back from some very high

​scores. Her caddy for the event, Bryan Bush, highly impressed with her ability to shake off setbacks, said, “We

​would have an uh-oh hole and next thing she would hit a hybrid or a fairway wood inside eight feet. You don’t see

​many of the adult pros doing that.” When she hit the ball into a sand trap, he recounted her question, “Did that go

​into the bunker,” and when he replied that it had, she said, “Okay. Oh, well.”

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[4]

​Whatever Lucy Li’s future in pro golfing holds, she’d accomplished a great deal in her short career so far. She’s

​not only broken records, and received public acclaim, even getting a letter from the Speaker of the House of

​Representatives, but has inspired a new generation to participate in the sport she loves.

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[5]

​And charmingly, she’s did so without losing the fresh outlook of a pre-teen. At the press conference following

​the US Women’s Open – still stylishly dressed in a patriotic stars-and-stripes blouse and eating a popsicle – when

​she was asked by a sports writer, “What do you plan to do for the rest of the day?” Lucy grinned, “Eat some more

​ice cream.”

Created for Albert.io. September 2014

(1)At 11 years of age, Lucy Li is the first person so young to qualify for the U. S. Women’s Amateur and U. S. Women’s Open golf tournament.